This invention relates to the field of devices for holding computer print-outs in working position for persons who have to work with and process the information contained on such computer print-outs.
Computer print-outs have become well known to the business world and office worker who have to work with them to utilize the information contained therein. They are typically bulky continuous form sheets of paper folded one on another with perforations for each sheet along the fold lines, and with margins along each opposite side usually perforated so they can be separated from the print-out if and when desired, the margins having uniformly spaced apart apertures therein for engagement by the corresponding teeth of the drive mechanism of printers which move the sheets of the computer print-outs through the printers as the information is being rapidly printed thereon.
The typical computer print-out may have sheets about fifteen inches wide by about eleven inches in length or in the longitudinal dimension, and may comprise a number of sheets when folded one on top of another that is four inches or more across the span from the top most sheet to the bottom.
Such print-outs are obviously awkward and difficult to work with. Some prior art methods of trying to deal with this problem include separating all of the perforated sheets and then binding them between hard covers to form a kind of book. Inasmuch as these computer print-outs are typically for only temporary use after which they can be discarded since the permanent information is stored in the computer, it is wasteful and unnecessary to bind the print-outs between costly hard covers just to be able to turn the pages and otherwise handle them while processing the information contained thereon.
The present invention solves that problem by providing a holder which can readily accept the computer print-outs thereon and hold them in place for turning of pages and otherwise handling, after which the computer print-outs can be discarded or stored if desired without incurring the time and expense of binding between hard covers. The holders in accordance with the present invention can be used repeatedly with successive print-outs without the need for purchasing numerous hard covers or other binding and backing sheets for print-outs whose usefulness has ended after having been initially processed.
To illustrate the state of the known prior art relative to this invention, U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,112 discloses a work table for use with a computer and its display screen but not for working with computer print-outs per se. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,520 discloses an artist's portfolio which vaguely resembles one modification of the present invention as far as its exterior configuration is concerned but is in a different field of art and would be unworkable with computer print-outs. Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,182 discloses a stand or study device having a similar exterior configuration but it is also in a different field of art and intended for such things as supporting a speaker's notes on a lectern. It has no means for holding a computer print-out in manageable form thereon, or for flipping sheets of a computer print-out over to a second panel to be similarly held and managed on the second panel.
The U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,044,980 and 3,380,701 show holders that have an exterior configuration similar to another modifictaion of the present invention, but they too are in different fields of art. They do not include any means for holding and managing bulky continuous form computer print-outs thereon, and would be unuseable for that purpose.
Other prior art patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,348,325 and 807,783 which disclose the use of pegs through holes in paper sheets to hold them on a display board, but again they are in completely different fields of art such as tabbed index cards in the one case and a tabbed file of separated billing sheets in the other held together by binding arches.